Billionaire's Bunker Review
Director: David Barrocal, Jesús Colmenar, and J.M Cravioto
Date Created: 2025-09-19 20:01
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Billionaire’s Bunker Review: Netflix’s Spanish series El refugio atómico is a crime thriller directed by David Barrocal, Jesús Colmenar, and J.M Cravioto and is created by David Oliva and runs eight episodes with an all-star cast list headed by Joaquín Furriel, Natalia Verbeke, Miren Ibarguren, Carlos Santos, Álex Villazán, Alícia Falcó, and Montse Guallar. This is yet another suspense survivor series, but this time with billionaires at its centre as it takes refuge inside an ultra-high-end underground bunker while all else out there is faced with war and Armageddon.
Billionaire’s Bunker Review
The show quickly makes clear that the bunker to be a sanctuary and a trap at once. These wealthy families have closed themselves indoors to ride out an Armageddon. As weeks become months, however, revelations are told, marriages begin to fray, and the “perfect” governance within falters. The idea is compelling: What is it like when those who normally live above everyone else are locked up with each other and with nobody else to see their true selves? Unfortunately, while the concept has wonderful potential, its fulfilment by the show left me with mixed feelings.
I’d like to say that Netflix’s Billionaire’s Bunker has brilliant production design is brilliant. The underground atmosphere is decadent yet claustrophobic and creates tension. The whole bunker is glossy yet tight and is there to remind us that money can’t guarantee freedom when those walls are constricting. The cinematography heightens said tension through dramatic close-ups and long shots to make it at once opulent and repellent.
The acting is also good. Joaquín Furriel lends depth to his character, and Natalia Verbeke and Miren Ibarguren infuse the piece with emotion. Even when the script is weak, the actors are capable of retaining my focus. They act out their characters’ arrogance, fear, and desperation with conviction and compel us to ask ourselves what we would do in their shoes.
Another thing I appreciated was the way the show distributes its twists throughout the episodes. You don’t need to wait at all until the season finale to have a huge reveal. Practically all episodes end with you having a new piece to the puzzle, and you can’t help but click “next episode.” That’s a big plus for binge-watching like me.
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But amidst all these pluses, I was nonetheless disappointed with the Billionaire’s Bunker Series. The greatest weakness is melodrama. Instead of keeping tension towards life and death and external crisis, the show indulges in endless arguments, adulterous activities, and misunderstandings. At certain points, it is like having a soap opera inside a luxury bunker and not like a suspenseful Spanish crime thriller.
The cast is another weak link. We see some effort by the actors, but all the characters are so formulaic and predictable. There is always some character who is keeping a secret and some character who is going to stab another character from behind. The tensions are cyclical, all too early, and originality with the concept is lost. I wanted to see some depth with the external threat and the real dangers out there, but there is never quite a scene outdoors outside these bunker confines.
Another disappointment is the large mystery involving why exactly these billionaires are here and what bigger agenda is involved. Initially, the show sets it up to potentially have some large-scale plot twist early on. However, once the truth is revealed, it is lacklustre and all too mediocre for all the hype. I was expecting it to be something earth-shattering, yet it is something we have seen before in another show.
Netflix’s Spanish series Billionaire’s Bunker is clearly inclined to observe class, money, and power. We see billionaires deposed of power, at war with one another, and revealing their nastiest selves. At times, this message is at its strongest when the “lords of the bunker” are using other people like pawns. The series also explores technology, artificial intelligence, and information manipulation to keep people compliant. Those elements are contemporary and terrifying and bring to mind the world we live in now.
However, the execution is uneven. The social commentary never quite achieves a peak as it could have done, and instead of making me think at some level, it left me eye-rolling at another over-the-top argument.
Netflix Billionaire’s Bunker Review: Summing Up
Overall, it is a watchable but flawed Spanish thriller. If you’ve watched any of Alex Pina’s other shows, like Money Heist or Sky Rojo and enjoyed them, you may find elements of this show to be similarly engaging because it has a similar brand of suspense and group drama. However, it never has the same zip or compelling storytelling to it. For myself, the show was more effective as a series of short stories and less so when done as a complete binge because it got stuck with heavy melodrama and predictable plot elements. By episode eight, I never felt as satisfied as I wanted to be.
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